Plan a yearly safeguarding calendar
Example
School details
School name: St Barnabas CE First and Middle School
Location: Worcestershire
Phase: Primary and Secondary
Number of pupils: 194
Contact details: Email Executive Headteacher Elizabeth Whetham at ewhetham@st-barnabas.dowmat.education
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Background from Elizabeth Whetham, Executive Headteacher
Safeguarding is an absolute priority for all school leaders, both at the strategic and operational level. The safeguarding planner is one of the most important documents that I use in strategic leadership - it offers a clear framework to help prioritise safeguarding tasks and helps me manage my workload. By completing all the tasks in the planner and making sure I’m up to date, I reduce my stress levels because I know the children in my school are as safe as they can be. The calendar can provide a starting point for schools but should be adapted by school leaders to reflect their own school’s approach to safeguarding and include any local requirements.
Key benefits
1. Reduced stress
A safeguarding planner helps break complex safeguarding requirements into smaller, manageable actions. It organises key tasks and deadlines across each term, so school leaders can stay on track without feeling overwhelmed.
2. Improved organisation
With a clear roadmap, school leaders can focus on keeping students safe. A safeguarding planner reminds school leaders to complete tasks such as:
- ensuring all staff are up to date with training
- reviewing risks
- performing safeguarding checks and audits
3. Better ways of working
At St Barnabas, the safeguarding planner is a working document that we refer to regularly. Without it, we would have to refer to several other documents more often e.g. our 79-page safeguarding policy.
The school leader, who is also the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), owns the planner. Deputy DSLs support with the completion of safeguarding tasks.
4. Effective record keeping and accountability
At St Barnabas, we refer to the planner when we meet with our safeguarding governor each term.
We also refer to it for other types of mandatory reporting - for example, the annual Section 175 Safeguarding Audit.
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